


Rock and Roll Dreams

by BarPurple



Series: BarPurple's House of Horror 2016 [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Vampires, radio dj
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 23:27:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8179825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: On the list of perfect jobs for a vampire, nighttime DJ is in the top ten.





	

He leaned back in his chair and listened, not to the rock music that was currently flowing out over the airwaves, what he was listening for no mere mortal could hear. Rum Gold had been a vampire for forty of his seventy years on Earth; he’d been a DJ for the past ten, since that strange day he’d discovered he could travel along radio waves. He’d adjusted to the vampire’s life rather well, but he’d probably have starved if he hadn’t been able to hypnotise his unwitting blood donors. In life he’d had difficulty talking to people and that hadn’t changed when he received the bite, at least now he could make them think meeting him had been a dream.

Rum snapped his attention back to the booth as the song drew to a close.

“The nights are drawing in, only thirty days until Halloween, so let’s have a triple play from the patron saint of all things spooky; Alice Cooper.”

He punched the buttons that set the songs playing and took a deep breath, he hadn’t need oxygen in decades but old habits die hard. Travelling this way was easy enough as long as he focused on his destination, that’s what he’d been listening for, that unmistakable accent that had been singing along with his show for the past few months. He let himself dissolve and flow into the transmitter; he’d actually filmed himself doing this once and been impressed at how dramatic it looked.

Rum had no idea how this worked, but he could pick up an impression of a person through the airwaves. An amazing amount of people sang along, or even talked back to the radio. He didn’t need to feed every night, so he had time to select someone who lived alone. The Australian accent he’d been hearing for the past few months had intrigued him instantly, although he wasn’t sure why. He’d had to stop himself laughing once when he’d misquoted Frankenstein and she’ll yelled at her radio to correct him.

Before he rematerialized he sent a tendril of consciousness out into her room. She was absorbed in her book. The static sensation that always put him in mind of taking clothes out of the drier crackled around him as he appeared and made the lights flicker. She looked up at him and Rum froze, she was stunningly beautiful.

“Sl…sleep.”

She cocked her head at him. His stammering had prevented the command working.

“Sleep.”

“No thank you. I’ve a hundred pages to finish yet.”

She raised the book in her lap, he flinched back, fearful that she would throw it at him.

“Easy, I was just showing you.”

Rum was confused, nothing about suggested that she was scared.

“Do strange men normally appear in your room late at night, dearie?”

She laughed at him, had he any breath that beautiful sound would have robbed him of it.

“You’re not a stranger. You’re Rum Gold, I invite you into my home every night,” she nodded toward the radio, “Although I never expected a personal appearance.”

Rum twisted his fingers together; he’d never had anything like this happen before. The second song of the triple play he set off started, he needed to feed and get back to the station. He opened his mouth and let his fangs descend, he normally shied away from such a blatant display of his nature, but he was desperate to get this situation back on track. Her eyes widened for a moment and he sense the first tingle of fear from her.

“Sleep.”

He darted forward to catch her as she slumped, her book tumbling to the floor with a thump. This close to her he could feel the blood pounding in her veins, could see the pulse in her neck. He swept her hair back from her face and paused. He couldn’t bring himself to mark her pretty neck; he laid her back against the pillows and lifted her hand to his face. For a crazy fleeting moment he imagined that she was awake and welcoming him home. He shook the foolish image away and turned her hand over; he inhaled her scent and gently pierced the delicate skin of her inner wrist with his fangs. He lapped quickly at the blood that welled to the surface. She tasted heavenly; the urge to drain her, to glut himself on her divine taste almost overwhelmed him. No he would not to that, he’d not killed while feeding in years and she deserved so much better than to become an unsolved crime statistic. He licked gently at the puncture marks, sealing them, she’d still have a mark come morning but there would be no open wound.

Rum picked her book from the floor and carefully put it on the nightstand. ‘Hey Stoopid’ began to play, he snorted at the appropriateness of that, here he was lingering, risking getting caught. He gave the curious, fearless beauty one last look before he crackled away via the radio waves back to the station.

 

Belle blinked awake, she hadn’t thought she was that tired, but she must have been to doze off like that when she was getting to the good part in her book. She patted the quilt looking for her book and was confused to see it on the nightstand. The final bars of ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ drifted out of the radio.

“And that brings us to the end of the show for tonight. I’ll be here again tomorrow with more of your favourite classic rock. Sleep well dearies, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Belle smiled at the radio and absently scratched at her wrist. Her brow creased at the odd memory of Rum Gold being here in her room. Oh well, a girl could dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Planet Rock has a show called Nights with Alice, hosted by Alice Cooper. They have a promo that goes something like;  
> "Don't worry a vampire needs to be invited into your home, but Alice Cooper comes into you home every night via the radio."  
> And that's where the idea for this fic came from.


End file.
